Broken
by keelhaulrose
Summary: Fate brought them together. Thanos tore them apart. Part 4 of Marked series


**Part 4 of the Marked series**

**WARNING: Infinity War spoilers and major character death**

**I'm going to be dumping a bunch of fics today. They were all written for the Hermione's Haven #HHBingo19 event. If you do not follow me on AO3 I would suggest going over there sometime, most of these fics have artwork accompanying them there.**

**This was my G1 square: star-crossed lovers**

"Hermione..."

She could hardly hear his strained call over the pounding of her own heart. She ran towards him as fast as she could, her wand out, a thousand spells crossing her mind, but not a single one would help.

It happened in slow motion, his metal hand going brown before turning to dust. She could tell he knew, because that's when he called her name, looked up at her, and quickly dug for something in his pocket with his right hand, dropping it to the ground. In the time it took her to take two running strides it was over, but those strides were an eternity, watching him try to take a step towards her as his body turned to dust in front of her. The last thing she saw was the look of fear in his eyes before they, too, were gone.

An inhuman sound filled the air as she stumbled, collapsing to her knees, all her strength disappearing with him. Around her the inhuman sound echoed in dozens of different voices, the bestial sounds of people who were in shock, in fear, who were losing everything. Her hands hit the ground purely reflexively, an attempt to keep her head from smashing onto the hard earth below, though she wished in that moment that her reflexes had betrayed her and allowed her to hit the ground and lose consciousness of the horror she was living in that moment.

Just as suddenly as it started, it was over, and the world grew silent. No birds called, no insects buzzed, even the wind was quiet. Even her heart seemed to still and her breath caught in her throat. For seconds, minutes, hours maybe she stayed there like that, looking at the small patch of dirt and rocks below her face, hoping that it was all a nightmare, that when she finally gained the strength to look up he'd be smiling there, ready to tell a joke about the situation.

"Hermione..." a voice, another voice, not _his_ voice called her name. This voice was soft, filled with pain an exhaustion, but she couldn't force herself to look up. Steve would be hurting just as bad as she was, but she didn't have the strength to deal with her own pain in that moment, let alone his or anyone's. So she ignored him.

She forced herself to crawl forward, first right hand, then left knee, then left hand, then right knee, having to give each of her protesting muscles the command to move, each limb feeling like a thousand-pound weight. She was breathing hard when she finally came to the dust pile that was once her soulmate, but immediately stopped breathing when she noticed a few particles were still lazily swirling in the air like dandelion seeds on a lazy summer day. She reached a shaking hand over the pile, part of her wanting to touch, to see if she could still feel him in the lifeless particles, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead she turned quickly and crawled a few feet away before her stomach violently emptied itself.

"Hermione," Steve's hand was on her back, and for a moment she felt the urge to attack him, as if this were somehow his fault, as if the failure was his alone. But she fought the urge, moving away from the pile of sick and sitting on the ground, her head between her knees, tears falling to the dirt and being immediately sucked into the parched soil. Instinctively her right hand found the red star on her left shoulder, the one that signified her as Bucky's, and she dug her nails in, wanting to pull it off as though that would somehow lessen the pain. Fate forced her to wear that mark her whole life, and that same fate seemed determined to keep them apart. They were born decades apart, meeting for the first time as he was held prisoner, and when they finally found happiness with each other it was only for a few short months before Thanos entered the picture and destroyed their future along with billions of others.

Steve sat there with her even as those around them started to move away, rushing to check on loved ones and friends, or just to try to escape the horror that had just happened. When she finally felt as though she could sit up she rested her head on his shoulder to cry, and found it already damp with his own tears. Even the super soldier had no more strength left in that moment.

Eventually the sky started to darken, as no one had told the sun it was not okay for the day to end and force them to come to the reality that the next time it rose their loved ones would still be gone. They heard someone approaching, and found Okoye standing stoically nearby with a lantern. When it was only the lantern light that illuminated the area Steve and Hermione seemed to wordlessly agree it was time to go. He stood first and held a hand out to her, pulling her to her feet and placing an arm around her as they leaned against each other for support. Before she left she took one last glance back at where she had last seen Bucky, and a glint of something caught her eye.

Without warning she ducked away from Steve and back to the pile of dust. The breeze had picked up enough that some of the dust had blown away, and nestled in the pile was a simple golden ring. She bit her lip as she bent to pick it up, determined not to cry into what remained of her lover. She held it in her open hand as she turned back, and found Steve looking down on it as well.

"He asked me to help him get that for you last week," Steve said softly. "He didn't have much, but he had done a couple jobs for your neighbors while you were at work, and as soon as he had enough for a ring he demanded we go get one. He thought you deserved bigger and fancier, but he didn't want to wait. He was going to ask you, but..." he trailed off.

Hermione closed her palm around the band tightly, then slipped it onto the ring finger of her left hand.

"I'm not giving up," Steve vowed.

She nodded, unable to say anything, unable to promise to not give up with him. It would be a long time before she had the strength to think of another fight again.


End file.
